taint
1 Americannoun
verb (used with object)
-
taints,
present (3rd person singular)
-
tainted,
past participle, past
-
tainting
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
taints,
present (3rd person singular)
-
tainted,
past participle, past
-
tainting
present participle
noun
verb
-
to affect or be affected by pollution or contamination
oil has tainted the water
-
to tarnish (someone's reputation, etc)
noun
-
a defect or flaw
a taint on someone's reputation
-
a trace of contamination or infection
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
taintsimple
-
taintssimple
-
have taintedperfect
-
has taintedperfect
-
am taintingprogressive
-
are taintingprogressive
-
is taintingprogressive
-
have been taintingperfect progressive
-
has been taintingperfect progressive
Past
-
taintedsimple
-
had taintedperfect
-
was taintingprogressive
-
were taintingprogressive
-
had been taintingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of taint1
First recorded in 1325–75; conflation of Middle English taynt, shortened variant of attaint “struck, attainted,” past participle of attainten “to convict” ( see attaint), late Middle English taynt “hue, tint” ( see tint), from Anglo-French teint or directly from Latin tinctus, equivalent to ting(ere) “to dye, color“ ( see tinge) + -tus suffix of verb action); and teinte, from Late Latin tincta “inked stroke,” noun use of feminine of past participle of tingere
Origin of taint2
First recorded in 1955–60; casual pronunciation of it ain’t (the one or the other), i.e., it is the area in between
Explanation
Taint means to contaminate. If you don’t want to taint your drinking water, don’t use an old gas can as a water pitcher. Tainting something makes it impure. To taint something is to spoil or corrupt it, whether it’s water, food, or even a person’s soul. These days, taint gets in the news if a company accidentally taints meat with salmonella bacteria, for example. If you add something poisonous to a substance, you taint it. A silly person might say when you taint something, t’aint right.
Vocabulary lists containing taint
Metaphors from Top AP English Exam Novels
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Monster
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "T"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Snyder expressed concern that such automation would taint the company’s efforts to sustain its in-person customer service and fresh food.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 9, 2026
“It’s a crisis for a unit when its head is suspected of such serious violations of the law,” he said, adding that the episode shouldn’t “contaminate and taint the entire unit.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
He also voiced concern that the draft lottery debate could "negatively taint the whole effort".
From Barron's ● Oct. 18, 2025
Escaping the taint of what spilled from the capsule and cut that day has been hard for all involved.
From BBC ● Mar. 24, 2025
Even if she got rich and famous and did command performances for Edward VII, like she said she would, she couldn’t ever live down the taint.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
It taints every good emotion that you were feeling before it happened.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
“Where is the line between an ethical lapse or a political misjudgment and something that kind of taints this office?” he asked.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 19, 2024
That authentic silhouette would erase the creep of modernization that taints many rental costumes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 11, 2023
This anthropological ethnic elitism was a common underpinning feature of much 19th-century archaeology and taints aspects of some of the speculation regarding American Vikings in the 21st century.
From Slate ● Nov. 11, 2023
As if having a sofa in a house on the ground taints its history in a house up in the sky.
From "Landscape with Invisible Hand" by M.T. Anderson
Although Allen and the original series’ head writer, Susan Fales-Hill, shaped the show into the version considered a sitcom classic, Bill Cosby’s creator credit tainted its reputation.
From Salon ● Sep. 24, 2026
District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw’s May decision to dismiss an indictment against Abrego Garcia after he found it was a blatantly tainted investigation “with a vindictive motive.”
From Slate ● Aug. 23, 2026
She said he had lost 11 of her 18 hectares in a wildfire, and didn't want to spend any money on harvesting surviving vines if the wine would be tainted.
From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026
The chain convened late-night meetings to coordinate response and pull potentially tainted lettuce from hundreds of locations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
Claire watched for a moment, then continued striding on, but her morning was tainted by the encounter.
From "Son" by Lois Lowry
For the past five days, lawyers for Robinson, a trainee electrician, raised repeated objections to evidence and testimony on arguments including hearsay and the tainting of potential jurors.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
Overturning Balogun’s red card has rankled even some American soccer fans, who see the intervention as tainting a U.S. run that had been gathering momentum.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
And so if “a court always carries out those waivers—no matter the kind or degree of error tainting a sentence—the judicial system’s integrity may come into question.”
From Slate ● Jun. 18, 2026
While none of the investigations target the president, Brazilians' weariness with corruption "ends up tainting those in power," Edinho Silva, head of the Workers' Party, lamented.
From Barron's ● Apr. 24, 2026
My rage spills out of me, tainting every move.
From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
